These are the adventures of Andy and Sally Rawnsley on their narrowboat "The Puzzler". We have been living on the boat for over eight years now and are still loving it. Our Ulster born Shih Tzu, Shannon, has grown up, and has taken over the boat! After three wonderful years in Ireland, we transported The Puzzler to The Netherlands, and spent a year there. In 2015 we went southwards, to reach the north of France by June. After glorious weather throughout the summer, we arrived in Roanne in late October, and enjoyed our winter in this friendly port. We cruised extensively in France in 2016, returning to Roanne for a second winter.

Saturday, 13 April 2013

As Shannon has not yet had her second injection, she has been exercising along the roof of The Puzzler. She is already in training for agility!

Shannon is quite happy to wear her new lifejacket while she watches life on the river.

She enjoys going out for a walk, even if it is in the rucksack.

We went to visit Margo, who is 97 years older than Shannon! They both enjoyed meeting each other.

There was a Flower Festival at St. Michael's this week. This is the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Enniskillen and is a very impressive building.

We enjoyed seeing all the lovely flower arrangements. They had been placed in every nook and cranny, causing concern to one lady. This conversation took place as a result of this.
Lady: Where can confession be heard today?
Priest: Oh, there is no confession today.
Lady: What about tomorrow then?
Priest: No, there is no confession here at all this week.
Lady: But I must go to confession as soon as possible!
Priest: Why? What have you done? Have you committed a murder?
There was no answer to this!

Every day there is police activity on the river as all the visiting police are trained in readiness for the G8 conference, which will be five miles from Enniskillen, just downstream at the Loch Erne centre. There do not seem to be any Health and Safety issues about how many people can be crammed into one of these dinghies!

As Shannon cannot go for regular walks until next week, from above she looks rather like a doorstop in shape!

No comments:

Post a Comment

About Me

We have made wooden jigsaws for a living for over 20 years and have also cruised extensively on the UK inland waterways. In 2003 we bought a new narrowboat shell and spent the next 18 months fitting her out in Norfolk. We named her The Puzzler and launched in June 2005.
We retired in April 2009 and have been living on the boat since then.
Having cruised nearly all the rivers and canals of England and Wales we were then looking for waters new, so in 2011 we transported The Puzzler to Ireland. We stayed on the Irish Waterways for three happy years, then in April 2014 moved The Puzzler on to The Netherlands. We enjoyed a year's cruising there, and overwintered in Schagen, in North Holland. In spring 2015 we sailed south into France, and are now enjoying everything that this fine country has to offer. We have made Roanne our winter base.